Trips and Expeditions
Day and Residential Trips
At OLA we believe that trips and expeditions can bring learning to life. Pupils are presented with many opportunities to enhance their classroom learning, sometimes having life changing experiences in the process.
There is a range of day and residential trips available for every year group including destinations such as Cotswold Wildlife Park, Blue John Caves, High Leigh Retreat, Black Country Museum, St Albans Abbey, New York, Barbados, exchange trips to France and Spain, sailing in Greece and skiing in Canada to name a few.
Overseas Trips
We also offer the opportunity to students in the Sixth Form and Year 11 who are continuing into the Sixth Form, to take part in an expedition abroad. These expeditions include an element of working in the local community as well as a personal challenge. They are always a popular choice and students who take part have learned skills in earning and saving money, planning activities for their community projects and developed a great sense of teamwork and responsibility.
Students have worked in a primary school in Kenya, climbed Mount Kenya, travelled to Peru, cycled through parts of China, worked in an orphanage in Patagonia, done a jungle safari and trekked to Everest Base Camp in Nepal.
In Ecuador, students spent a week working at a biological research station, built a shelter for a local primary school and trekked in the Andes and the rainforest. An expedition to Uganda strengthened links with our partner school there (Maryhill) as well as providing opportunities for improving a classroom and building a school which was in urgent need of help. The students also visited a special needs school and managed to find time to do a safari trip to spot a variety of wild animals.
OLA’s expedition in July 2018 was to Sabah on the island of Borneo. A group of nineteen Year 11 and Sixth Form students worked on a forest conservation project on the Kinabatangan River, learnt all about palm oil and the issues surrounding its large scale production, saw spectacular wildlife including Orangutans, Proboscis Monkeys and Pygmy Elephants, learnt traditional dances from their homestay hosts, trekked through the rain forests of the Kiulu valley, learnt jungle skills and all about the indigenous uses of plants for medicinal and survival purposes, snorkelled in a marine park and sampled many delicious new foods.
The aim of the expedition was for the students to take responsibility for arranging the smooth running of the itinerary, budget and organisation of activities. They did this extremely well and gained the confidence to navigate in a foreign country by themselves. They also brought back many wonderful photographs and life long memories.
